Tesco man to lead Asda finance offer

Asda has poached Tesco Home Shopping chief executive Paul Mancey to

spearhead its launch into financial services.

Mancey, who has been with Tesco for ten years, will join Asda in January

in the newly created role of business unit director, new businesses -

finance. He will report to deputy chief operating officer Richard

Baker.

The Wal-Mart subsidiary is understood to be keen to offer a range of

no-frills services, including off-the-shelf financial products such as

insurance and loans. Industry insiders suggest this could be followed by

areas such as utilities, though Asda insists it is focusing purely on

finance.

A former Colgate-Palmolive and Britvic Soft Drinks marketer, Mancey has

held various roles at Tesco, including European trading director, UK

non-food director and, lately, chief executive of the home shopping

joint venture with Grattan.

His appointment comes at an important time for Asda, which is gaining

ground on market leaders Tesco and Sainsbury's.

The top two chains have established consumer financial services

offerings.

Sainsbury's has also diversified into utilities and mobile phone

provision.

Asda already has its own clothing range under the George brand, but

experimentation with financial services has been restricted to

introducing Lloyds TSB easibanks to some stores.

The financial services launch is expected to take place some time next

year. An Asda spokesman said: "The important thing is to develop a

financial services proposition that is right for our customers. Because

we want to make sure we get it right, it will be some time before there

is anything on the shelf."

Asda's £23m brand advertising account is handled by Publicis,

which recently gave the supermarket's TV ads a new emphasis on product

range and service.

The company does not have a loyalty scheme because it prefers to invest

money in its 'Permanently low prices forever' brand positioning.

This article was first published on Marketing